Apparatus for arresting exhaust gas sparks



Nov. 24, 1970 ,P. A. LABADIE 3,541,768

APPARATUS FOR ARRESTING EXHAUST GAS SPARKS Filed Aug. 5, 1968 M INVENTORR406 A. AABAD/E ATTOE/VEKE United States Patent 01 Ffice 3,541,768Patented Nov. 24, 1970 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A spark arresterremoves carbon particles from the exhaust of a diesel locomotive engineprior to emission to the atmosphere. Exhaust including the particles inintroduced into a chamber defined by a cylindrical body from the exhaustports of the engine and then rotated in one direction about the chamberto segregate the particles by centrifugal force in the outer portion ofthe chamber where they are retained by a collection container. Theparticle free exhaust in the central portion of the chamber is thendischarged through a centrally located duct into the atmosphere.

This invention relates to a spark arrester and is particularly directedto improvements in a spark arrester for a diesel locomotive engineutilizing fuel which tends to produce carbonaceous deposits that areincluded in the engine exhaust in a burning condition.

Diesel locomotives, in many areas, are required to travel in closeproximity to grass, brush, timber and other combustible materials.Unfortunately, diesel locomotives emit exhaust gases into the atmospherewhich contain the carbon particles or sparks. In the past, these sparkshave been the cause of several fires. To avoid these exhaust sparkfires, certain states have recently enacted legislation establishingcertain minimum requirements which must be met before a locomotive willbe allowed to operate in areas having a high fire danger. Sparkarresters have been used previously on locomotive combustion engines,but these spark arresters do not meet the minimum requirements that havenow been set forth.

In the past, various expedients, such as metal screens and concentricbafiles were used to reduce the fire hazard. However, an increase in theefficiency of a spark arrester meant a decrease in the overallefiiciency and performance of the engine, since it usually required arestriction of the exhaust gas flow. Furthermore, these baflles wereexpensive to maintain and install. Therefore, it was necessary to designa spark arresting apparatus which was easily adapted to the existingdesign of the locomotive engine, required little or no maintenance andwould efiectively prevent spark emission without reducing the poweroutput of the engine.

Various spark arresters embodying an apparatus which directed the gasflow circumferentially about a cylindrical chamber to separate thecarbon particles by centrifugal force and to discharge only the gasesfrom the center of the chamber have been used before with a moderatedegree of success. However, in high fire danger areas they areunacceptable. It has been found that as the carbon particles flowedalong the wall of the chamber they tended to bounce off each other andthe chamber wall with the result that many particles rebounded radiallyinward into the primary gas stream being discharged.

Also, at low flow rates the particles were not effectively separatedfrom the primary gas stream. Furthermore, some of the exahust gasintroduced into the chamber near the chamber outlet would pass directlyto the outlet without flowing circumferenially within the chamber.

To avoid these deficiencies my invention includes a collection containerlocated in an area having a high concentration of separated particles,so as to separate and retain these particles before they have a chanceto re-enter the primary gas stream; the exhaust ports from the enginehave been restricted in such a manner as to increase the gas velocityand centrifugal forces acting on the carbon particles at all enginevelocities; and a T-shaped outlet duct has been symmetrically positionedwithin the cylindrical chamber, all to insure the discharge of onlyparticle free exhaust gas.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a spark arresterwhich has a high arresting efiiciency, but will not materially reducethe overall operating efficiency of the locomotive diesel engine.

A further object of this invention is to provide a spark arrester whichcan be easily adapted to the present exhaust systems of diesel engines.

Another object of this invention is to provide a spark arrester whichwill maintain an acceptable arresting efficiency for a long period oftime.

A further object of this invention is to provide a spark arrester whichcan be easily cleaned without removal of clamping or mounting devicesfrom the stack, pipe or manifold assembly.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a novel methodfor effectively and efiiciently arresting and preventing the dischargeof carbon particles entrained in the exhaust gases of a locomotiveengine.

These and other objects will be apparent from the accompanying drawingsand following description.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a sectional side view showing the sparkarrester in connection with a typical locomotive diesel exhaust system.

FIG. 2 is a sectional end view taken substantially on the line 22 shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the spark collecting devicetaken substantially on the line 3-3 shown in FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the spark arrester system, generallydesignated 10, includes a main cylindrical body 11 which defines achamber 11a and is supported by four pairs of diverging exhaust tubes.The inlet end of each tube is provided with a flange 13a for connectingthe tube to its respective exhaust port on the top of the multicylin derdiesel engine (not shown). The typical engine has four pairs of spacedand longitudinal aligned exhaust ports. As shown in FIG. 2 the left orfirst tubes, designated 12, are tangent to the inner surface of the mainbody 11. The right or second tubes are designated 13. All tubesdesignated 12 are identical and all tubes designated 13 are identical,and therefore, for simplicity the following description will be confinedto one tube 12 and one tube 13. These exhaust tubes 12 and 13 conductthe exhaust gas from the ports to the main cylindrical body 11. The maincylindrical body is provided with inlet openings 14 and 15 to receivethe exhaust gas from the exhaust tubes 12 and 13, respectively.

In order to orient the flow of exhaust gas from the diverging exhausttubes 12 and 13 in one circular direction within chamber 11a, turningvanes 16 are positioned within the inlet opening 15 for tube 13 todirect the flow of exhaust gas from tube 13 tangent to the inner surfaceof the main body 11 similar to the flow of exhaust gas from tube 12.Thus, the exhaust gas flows in one direction around the inner wall 17 ofthe main cylindrical body 11. This inner wall 17 has been extended at 18into the opening 14 to partially restrict the inlet opening 14 from tube12 to increase the exhaust gas velocity. As the exhaust gas flows aroundthe inside of the main cylindrical body, centrifugal forces act on thecarbon particles to force the carbon particles to separate from theprimary gas stream and to become concentrated and flow along the innerwall 17.

A deflector plate 23a located on the inner wall 17 before opening 15directs the exhaust gas flowing around the inner Wall 17 away from theinlet opening 15 to minimize interference with the exhaust gas enteringthe chaniber 11a from tube 13.

The spark arrester system also includes a central outlet duct or member19. The central outlet duct or member is symmetrically mounted withinthe main cylindrical body 11 and is also cylindrical in shape, havingopen ends 20 and 21. The open ends 20 and 21 face axially and are spacedaxially apart from the inlet openings 14 and 15. Therefore, in thesituation Where the spark arrester system 10 is adapted to the typicalmulticylinder diesel engine and the main cylindrical body in cludes fourpairs of spaced and longitudinal aligned inlet openings, the ends 20 and'21 of the duct 19 are axially between the middle two pair and the outertwo pair. This arrangement produces smooth flow from all four pairs ofinlet openings towards open ends 20 and 21 Without passing over otherinlet openings. The duct 19 also insures that the exhaust gases whichenter the chamber 11a tangentially from the inlet openings 14 and willflow around the inner wall 17 before entering the open ends and 21. Thecentral outlet member 19 also includes an exhaust stack 22 which passesthrough an exhaust opening 23 in the main cylindrical body 11.

The main cylindrical body 11 is also provided with longitudinallyextending slot openings 24 and 25. These openings 24 and are locatedadjacent to the open ends 20 and 21, respectively, of the central outletmember 19. This location has been found to have the highestconcentration of segregated particles. Each opening 24 and 25communicates with externally located carbon collection containers 26which are mounted on the outer wall 29 of the main cylindrical body 11.Each carbon collection container 26 is provided with an opening '27 atits lower end for periodic removal of particles from container 26. Aremovable plug 28 serves to close the opening 27 during normal operationof the diesel engine.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows:

Exhaust gas flows at high velocities from the cylinders of the dieselengine through the gas exhaust tubes 12 and 13 through the inletopenings 14 and 15 into the main cylindrical body 11. The exhaust gasvelocity is increased by partially restricting the inlet opening 14 andthe gas flow is oriented in one direction by the direction vanes 16mounted within the opening 15. The flow of the exhaust gas around theinside of the cylindrical body 11 causes the carbon particles to becentrifuged to the inside surface 17 of the main body 11, and thusseparated from the primary gas stream. It has been discovered that theparticles once separated become concentrated in revolving bands near theopenings 20 and 21 of the central outlet member 19 and normally wouldrebound from the Wall and other particles into the openings 20 and 21.However, with this device the particles flow along the inner wall 17 andpass through the openings 24 and 25 into the respective carboncollection containers 26. The exhaust gas minus the segregated andtrapped carbon particles then flows from the central portion of thechamber 11a into the openings 20 and 21 of the central outlet member 19and out the exhaust stack 22 into the atmosphere. The accumulated carbonparticles are removed from the collection containers 26 by removing theplug 28 from the opening 27.

This device eliminates sparks from exhaust gases at a high efiiciencywithout reducing the overall efiiciency and performance of the dieselengine. The device is easily adapted to existing structures of astandard diesel engine exhaust system and requires little or nomaintenance.

The carbon collection containers have a relatively high 4 capacity and,therefore, the arresting etficiency remains high for a long period ofoperation. Furthermore, the collected particles can be easily andquickly removed.

Having fully described my invention, it is to be understood that I amnot to be limited to the details herein set forth, but that my inventionis of the full scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A spark arrester for a diesel engine having a plurality of pairs ofspaced exhaust ports, comprising: a main cylindrical body closed at theends defining a chamber; said main body having a clean exhaust gasoutlet opening and a plurality of pairs of inlet openings longitudinallyspaced along said main body; said outlet opening located in thecylindrical wall of said main body; pairs of first and second tubesconnected to said inlet openings and adapted to be connected to eachpair of exhaust ports to communicate exhaust gas containing carbonparticles from the engine to said chamber through said inlet openings;said first and second tubes extending in converging relationship to eachother outwardly from the inlets and thereby adapted to extend indiverging relationship from each pair of exhaust ports before connectingto said main body of said inlet openings; each said first tube beingtangent to the inner surface of said main body; turning vanes located ineach said second tube to cause the exhaust gas entering said chamberfrom said second tubes to flow in the same circular direction as the fiow from the first tubes and around the inner surface of said maincylindrical body to segregate by centrifugal force the carbon particlesin the outer portion of said chamber and away from the primary stream ofexhaust gas; a cylindrical duct having open ends and positioned axiallyand symmetrically in said cylindrical main body and spaced from saidclosed ends; said open ends axially and longitudinally spaced from eachpair of inlet openings to prevent the direct flow of gas from said inletopenings to said open ends; longitudinally extending slots in said maincylindrical body located radially outward from and in general alignmentwith said duct open ends for skimming off carbon particles; a collectioncontainer communicating with each said slot and mounted on the exteriorof said body and surrounding each said slot; and said cylindrical ducthaving an exhaust stack extending out said outlet opening in said mainbody whereby the particle free exhaust gas in the central portion ofsaid chamber enters the open ends of said duct and is discharged outsaid exhaust stack into the atmosphere.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said slots arelocated near the top of said main cylindrical body and said collectioncontainers extend downwardly from said slots.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein deflector plates areconnected to the inner cylindrical surface of said main body, each saiddeflector plate inclined at an angle to the tangent of the inner surfaceof said main cylindrical body and extending over a portion of said inletopenings connected to said second tubes to partially restrict said inletopenings and to direct exhaust gas flowing in said chamber away fromsaid inlet openings connected to said second tubes.

4. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said inlet openingsconnected to said first tubes are restricted to increase the velocity ofexhaust gas flow.

5. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said slots extendonly a short longitudinal distance in each direction from thelongitudinal position of said open ends of said cylindrical duct.

6. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said main body hasfour pairs of inlet openings equally spaced;

one pair of said inlet openings located axially beyond each open end ofsaid duct; and

the other pairs of said inlet openings located axially between each openend of said duct.

7. The spark arrester of claim 1 wherein each said slot is of a shortlongitudinal length and is longitudinally spaced from all of said inletopenings.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 3,426,513 2/1969 Bauer -4593,436,900 4/ 1969 Evens et al. 55-459 FOREIGN PATENTS 171,792 6/ 1960Sweden.

FRANK W. LUTTER, Primary Examiner B. NOZICK, Assistant Examiner US. Cl.X.R.

